Bound for Rescue
by Serafina360
Summary: My version of the episode 'Bound for Rescue' from a trailer. With Ahsoka captured by Hondo, Anakin and Obi-wan go to try and negotiate Ahsoka back. But the younglings launch their own plan to rescue Ahsoka, without the adults.
1. Chapter 1

"We have searched the entire ship and she'd not here!" Ganodi wailed.

"Maybe she got sucked into space!" Petro exclaimed.

Byph gibbered in worry.

"She was not sucked into space!" Katooni insisted.

"The pirate ship was only about a foot from the door. She could have ended up on their ship." Zatt commented.

"And gotten caught by the pirates!" Petro said, eyes wide.

"Rawrrawrar." Gungi lamented.

"But she's great. Ahsoka could fight those pirates." Katooni said, trying to sound optimistic.

"Or she just got sucked into space and she's dead!" Ganodi exclaimed.

Katooni frowned "I think we should be –"

"I'm getting a transmission from Ahsoka!" Zatt exclaimed suddenly. The other younglings crowded around the control panel.

"Ahsoka?" Katooni asked tentatively. Suddenly the image flickered on to show Hondo standing relaxed, his kowakian monkey lizard playing on his arm.

"Unfortunately not, younglings." The younglings stared at him in shock. "Where's Ahsoka?" Petro demanded, leaning towards the hologram.

"Oh, she's here too." Hondo said gesturing behind him and Ahsoka appeared in the hologram. She looked tired and slightly bruised, with no lightsabers and her hands cuffed in front of her.

"Ahsoka!" All the younglings exclaimed. And then all started talking at once their voices overlapping as they all tried to communicate.

"You weren't killed!"

"What happened?"

"Is she okay?"

"Are you okay?"

"Don't you dare hurt her!"

"Rawrrr!"

"How did they all get away?"

"Where are your swords?"

Ahsoka glanced at Hondo but didn't say anything. "Children… children…" Hondo said brushing off his monkey lizard. It chattered and leapt over to Ahsoka.

She winced as it climbed up her arms and head, arranging itself on the top of her head, its tail swinging one inch from her nose.

"What do you want?" Katooni asked, pushing Petro aside.

"I want wealth, something you can provide for me. I want your crystals. Then I shall release Ahsoka."

Ahsoka hands shot up in front of her face, trying to grab the monkey lizard but it reacted to quickly, scampering down the back of her montrals and her fingers only grasped at empty air. Cackling softly at her effort he dug his claws in, head just peeking over the top of hers. She winced from the claws and shook her head back and forth trying to dislodge him. He hung on and Ahsoka paused, letting him hand there as she thought.

"How can we trust you?" Katooni demanded

"You can't." Hondo said simply. "But unless you trade with us. Ahsoka may become a more permanent resident."

Ahsoka tried to grab him over her left shoulder sending him scampering around the other side and onto her front. Before he could flee again, she picked him up with the Force and tossed him to the side and out of the range of the hologram.

There was a shout from outside the range, a large clatter and the younglings who'd been watching this tussle all let out a cheer.

Hondo whirled around and Ahsoka smirked at him. He turned back to younglings. "While I respect Ahsoka to some degree, she is making it increasingly easy to dislike her." As he said this, Ahsoka stared directly at the younglings, shaking her head back and forth trying to discourage them from whatever scheme they might plan.

"If you would like to save her some considerable trouble, I suggest you hurry with those crystals." And the transmission ended.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"What are we going to do?" Ganodi said, eyes wide.

"We should go rescue her!" Petro exclaimed.

"Us? Against an entire gang of pirates?" Katooni said, looking around at the other younglings. They all looked reasonably open to the idea.

"Sure, we –" Petro started but was interrupted by Zatt.

"I'm getting another transmission! It's from a Republic cruiser."

Answer it. Gungi suggested.

Zatt pressed the button to answer the call and a hologram of Anakin Skywalker appeared on the console, he had his arms crossed and he looked fairly annoyed.

"Master Skywalker!" Katooni said, surprised.

"I need to talk to Ahsoka, she's not answering her communicator."

"Um…well…" Katooni said, glancing at the other younglings. They all looked equally uncomfortable.

Anakin looked at each of the younglings, and frowned. "Where is Ahsoka and what did you do?" he asked, resigned to a bad answer.

"We didn't do anything!" Petro burst out, looking outraged that Anakin would ever had suggested such a thing.

And suddenly all the younglings started talking at once, trying to explain what had happened. "They attacked the ship… the ventilation system… there was a big fight… got his head kicked off… Ahsoka tried to… And VOOM!" Petro finished.

Anakin looked completely lost. "One of you, start from the beginning." He directed.

"They attacked the ship," Katooni started before Petro could say anything. "Ahsoka got us to hide in the ventilation system and went to reroute power to the engines while Ganodi and Zatt secured the cockpit. But the pirates almost caught us – they were after the crystals – and Ahsoka fought the pirates. We got to the hold and she told us to break away from the pirate ship while she was still fighting them. They got sucked back to their ship. She told us to jump to hyspersapce and then we couldn't find her anywhere on the ship!"

By this point in the recitation Anakin was looking livid. "Who attacked?"

"It was these pirates in this giant flying disk." Petro broke in, "Ahsoka knew the leader, she called him –"

"Hondo." Anakin growled.

"Yeah." Petro agreed. "He just contacted us. He's got Ahsoka and he wants the lightsaber crystals in exchange for Ahsoka."

Anakin's face darkened even further and he glared at the younglings. "Go back to Coruscant" he ordered. Several of the younglings opened their mouths to protest, but Anakin raised a hand to cut them off. "Go straight back to the temple and don't try anything stupid. I'll notify the Jedi of this development."

"Why was Ahsoka the only Jedi with those younglings? Shouldn't a knight have gone with them?"

"Anakin, I think you were supposed to be that knight." Anakin glared at Obi-wan. Obi-wan didn't get the hint and just kept talking. "Instead, you convinced me to take you on my mission, and left Ahsoka behind at the temple because, and I quote, 'she still has plenty to learn as a padawan.'" He looked at Anakin reproachfully. "And that is how she ended up taking the younglings to Illum."

"It's not my fault I'm needed elsewhere!" Anakin said, rounding on Obi-wan. "In case you haven't noticed there's a war going on here." He emphasized his words by flinging his arm out towards the viewport, where the badly scorched and beaten cruisers were limping their way through hyperspace.

"Very shrewd observation, Anakin." Obi-wan commented dryly. "I think most of us missed that little detail while we were fighting Grievous."

"You were the one fighting Grievous." Anakin retorted, latching on to Obi-wan's banter, "I was the one in the fighter, keeping you from getting blown up."

"Don't complain, I wasn't the one who dragged you out here."

And that small comment immediately made Anakin think of Ahsoka again. If he hadn't gone with Obi-wan, if he hadn't left Ahsoka with the younglings…

"Don't blame yourself." Obi-wan said gently, picking up on Anakin's thoughts. Obi-wan's words held some truth to them, but in the back of his mind, he still placed some of the blame on himself.

Anakin paused and took a deep breath, trying to focus himself. Then he turned back to the large map of the galaxy at the center of the room.

"Those younglings were very close to Florrum, when they were attacked. So the pirates will probably be bringing Ahsoka back there." Anakin said, jabbing at the map, his fingers passing through miniature systems and stars.

"Seems logical." Obi-wan agreed, nodding. Then he paused and looked more closely at the map. "If they were getting crystals on Illum, what were they doing near Florrum? That's nowhere near Coruscant _or _Illum!"

"So if we bring our fleet around there, then we can attack the base." Anakin continued, ignoring Obi-wan. "Rex and Cody can–"

"Slow down Anakin." Obi-wan interrupted. "You were, not minutes ago, pointing out the damage this fleet has sustained. Even with our numbers, there is no way that we are going to take Florrum."

"Master, we have the superior numbers to strike now."

"Yes but our ships will fall apart if they get hit by one more missile. We lost a significant number of soldiers today and you look like you're about to fall over. As much as you hate to admit it, we need to go back to Coruscant first."

"And leave Ahsoka with those pirates?" Anakin shouted, drawing glances from the crew.

"Anakin, think." Obi-wan insisted coming around the projector to stand in front of Anakin. "Hondo wants the crystals, not dead Jedi. If he kills Ahsoka, he'll have no way of getting the crystals. She will be fine for a day while we muster ourselves back into fighting shape."

Anakin just shook his head. "We can't leave her."

"Anakin!" Obi-wan said sharply, "Right now, all we could do is get more people killed. We should try for a more diplomatic solution."

Anakin hated it, but Obi-wan was right, he might have been thinking a bit to rashly. Looking around the bridge, the clones looked worn out, and these ones hadn't even been in the thick of it. Looking back at Obi-wan, Anakin reluctantly nodded his assent, trying to stifle a yawn.

"Good." Obi-wan nodded, "It's going to take us a few more hours to reach Coruscant, so you should probably get some rest."

"I don't need any rest right now!" Anakin protested. But Obi-wan just raised his eyebrows and Anakin had to turn away to hide another yawn. "Fine." he grumbled and walked out of the bridge to go lie down in his quarters.

"So what are we going to do?" Katooni eventually said, looking around at the other younglings.

"Master Skywalker told us to go back to Coruscant." Ganodi replied. "We can't just ignore that."

"We could. We could rescue Ahsoka!" Petro said, jumping up.

"I do not think that would be a particularly wise course of action." Huyang said, Artoo chiming in behind him.

"We could sneak in through the back!" Petro shouted.

Huyang and the younglings all stared at him in a bit of shock.

They could have secret tunnels! Gungi said, prompting a flurry of suggestions from the younglings, each of them adding their own input.

"They do not even have their lightsabers." Huyang said, sighing to R2.

R2 let out a mournful whistle, agreeing with the professor. Then, suddenly, he started chirping and beeping excitedly. Huyang listened intently for a few seconds before nodding. "A deceptive plan Artoo, but it will probably get us on route to Coruscant. . If they dismember me further, the blame shall be on you."

Artoo beeped cheekily and rolled into the back of Huyang's legs sending him stumbling forward to the younglings.

"Younglings, younglings!" he called out. The younglings all stopped talking, turning to face him. "If you want to mount any attempt at rescue you will need lightsabers. I think we have postponed long enough in constructing them."

"I thought you wanted to go back to Coruscant." Katooni said, stepping forward out of the huddle of younglings.

"Regardless of where we go, I will not have you killed because I neglected to perform my duty." He could tell the younglings were tempted; they really wanted to build their lightsabers. They glanced at each other, before finally Petro stepped up.

"We should probably go build our lightsabers."

"Wonderful." Huyang said, and started trying to shepherd them out of the cockpit.

"Wait," Zatt said, stopping just before the door, "whose going to fly the ship?"

"Artoo of course." Huyang replied.

"But Artoo's going to take us back to Coruscant!" he cried out and turned back to Artoo.

Artoo just whistled, whipped out his shock arm and jabbed Zatt in the back. Zatt yelped and jumped forward. The door to the cockpit hissed shut behind him as he whirled around to face it.

"He's locked us out!" Petro complained, jabbing the door controls ineffectually.

"You tricked us Professor." Katooni said. She almost looked disappointed with the droid.

"Yes I did, younglings." Huyang said, before starting to walk down the hallway again, "Now let us go construct our lightsabers."

"Really?" Petro asked excitedly.

Huyang paused and turned around to face the younglings again. "Artoo and I may have stopped you from doing something dangerous and reckless this time but we will not always be able to stop you. And if you should get hurt doing something reckless because you did not know how to make your lightsaber than I shall be derelict in my duty to you." He finished and pivoted, continuing to walk down the hallway.

"Guess we're going back to Coruscant after all." Petro sighed as he followed the other younglings and Huyang down the corridor.


End file.
